OESF Portables Forum
Model Specific Forums => Gemini PDA => Gemini PDA - Hardware => Topic started by: bzd on June 04, 2018, 03:02:12 pm
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Hi all,
With the rear facing camera perk starting to arrive with people, would someone be able to post some sample photos taken with the add-on camera?
I'd really like to see a photo of a sheet of A4 paper with text on -- is that legible/focused (I'm a lazy note taker)?!
Thanks in advance!
Ben
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Interested in this as well. Really wish they went with a flagship level camera add-on, I would've gladly paid for it.
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Interested in this as well. Really wish they went with a flagship level camera add-on, I would've gladly paid for it.
Yep me too. Given that it's a modular add-on, I wonder if there's a possibility of an alternative better camera being used? Not exactly flagship level, but the RPi has an 8MP camera these days, but I don't know if it has a binary only kernel module.
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Don't plan on using it to keep long term memories of your kids. Its passable as a document scanner, but only if you have a steady hand.
Indoors, under LED lights over kitchen island.
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Outdoors, sunny day, excellent lighting conditions.
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Interested in this as well. Really wish they went with a flagship level camera add-on, I would've gladly paid for it.
Yep me too. Given that it's a modular add-on, I wonder if there's a possibility of an alternative better camera being used? Not exactly flagship level, but the RPi has an 8MP camera these days, but I don't know if it has a binary only kernel module.
It doesn't even have that. The camera is driven directly by the videocore firmware which is a 100% proprietary RTOS - it doesn't even run on the same CPU as Linux. It is then exposed to Linux through the MMAL interface.
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Thanks for those pgotos shinkamui. Cute dog, and now I'm hungry for lunch! As you say, not photo album quality, but not as bad as they might have been. Any chance of a photo of a magazine/book page with smallish (10pt, 12pt) text? The quality still looks borderline as to whether I'd buy the camera separately!
@ali1234 do we know which cameras that firmware supports, or is it only for this one camera?
Thanks again for the pics and info.
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@ali1234 do we know which cameras that firmware supports, or is it only for this one camera?
The RPi firmware supports a couple of different OmniVision cameras - the original one and the upgraded one. There are also several clone cameras which are compatible with the firmware but of course the RPi Foundation does not support them.
None of this is really relevant for Gemini as the firmware is written for the VideoCore processor which the Gemini does not have.
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@ali1234 do we know which cameras that firmware supports, or is it only for this one camera?
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None of this is really relevant for Gemini as the firmware is written for the VideoCore processor which the Gemini does not have.
Ah sorry my mistake. I thought you'd meant it was the VideoCore processor in the Gemini, with no blob drivers!
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Thanks for sharing photos, shinkamui!
As others have said, photos look better than expected and really not too bad....
Mark
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Not sure if I want to pick up a camera mobile module or not. I still wish they would've offered a more high quality camera add-on.
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Wow, seems nice. Photos are better than I expected.
Any photos how Gemini looks with camera addon installed? I did not bought camera addon because I did not want to ruin clean design of Gemini. But this camera seems to be good enough to take "documentation" photos (just inserting photos to some project documentation). Now is seems interesting.
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Wow, seems nice. Photos are better than I expected.
Any photos how Gemini looks with camera addon installed? I did not bought camera addon because I did not want to ruin clean design of Gemini. But this camera seems to be good enough to take "documentation" photos (just inserting photos to some project documentation). Now is seems interesting.
Making me pull out the iphone or note... Ill take a couple shots and post this afternoon.
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Wow, seems nice. Photos are better than I expected.
Any photos how Gemini looks with camera addon installed? I did not bought camera addon because I did not want to ruin clean design of Gemini. But this camera seems to be good enough to take "documentation" photos (just inserting photos to some project documentation). Now is seems interesting.
Making me pull out the iphone or note... Ill take a couple shots and post this afternoon.
Camera module add-on is no longer for sale at indiegogo.com ( I did not see more ).
Maybe out of stock or the module will be upgraded.
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Wow, seems nice. Photos are better than I expected.
Any photos how Gemini looks with camera addon installed? I did not bought camera addon because I did not want to ruin clean design of Gemini. But this camera seems to be good enough to take "documentation" photos (just inserting photos to some project documentation). Now is seems interesting.
Making me pull out the iphone or note... Ill take a couple shots and post this afternoon.
Camera module add-on is no longer for sale at indiegogo.com ( I did not see more ).
Maybe out of stock or the module will be upgraded.
They seem to sell the camera here: https://pdaplaza.ca/products/external-camer...-for-gemini-pda (https://pdaplaza.ca/products/external-camera-add-on-for-gemini-pda)
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Also it is for sale at the planet computers official online shop
https://store.planetcom.co.uk/collections/a...l-camera-add-on (https://store.planetcom.co.uk/collections/accessories/products/external-camera-add-on)
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Wow, seems nice. Photos are better than I expected.
Any photos how Gemini looks with camera addon installed? I did not bought camera addon because I did not want to ruin clean design of Gemini. But this camera seems to be good enough to take "documentation" photos (just inserting photos to some project documentation). Now is seems interesting.
Making me pull out the iphone or note... Ill take a couple shots and post this afternoon.
Camera module add-on is no longer for sale at indiegogo.com ( I did not see more ).
Maybe out of stock or the module will be upgraded.
They seem to sell the camera here: https://pdaplaza.ca/products/external-camer...-for-gemini-pda (https://pdaplaza.ca/products/external-camera-add-on-for-gemini-pda)
Ok. Thank you so much !
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Also it is for sale at the planet computers official online shop
https://store.planetcom.co.uk/collections/a...l-camera-add-on (https://store.planetcom.co.uk/collections/accessories/products/external-camera-add-on)
Ok. Thank you so much !
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Thank you, shinkamui, for the sample pictures.
But no, my five year old tablet takes better pictures, I'm not buying it.
Don't plan on using it to keep long term memories of your kids. Its passable as a document scanner, but only if you have a steady hand.
Indoors, under LED lights over kitchen island.
Outdoors, sunny day, excellent lighting conditions.
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Wonder if a higher quality camera module could be "hacked" to work.
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I have printed a test page I found on some webpage, containing text of different sizes, and made a photo of it with the external camera, I hope it will be useful to get an idea of the camera’s quality. I made the photo indoors, in a room with neon lightning.
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Note that the external camera is necessary if you plan to use the Gemini as your primary phone and your home banking app requires to scan a QR (or similar) code in order to get access to your account. I have installed the app for my bank account on the Gemini and it works as expected.
Varti
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I have printed a test page I found on some webpage, containing text of different sizes, and made a photo of it with the external camera, I hope it will be useful to get an idea of the camera’s quality. I made the photo indoors, in a room with neon lightning.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Note that the external camera is necessary if you plan to use the Gemini as your primary phone and your home banking app requires to scan a QR (or similar) code in order to get access to your account. I have installed the app for my bank account on the Gemini and it works as expected.
Varti
Thanks Varti, that's perfect for judging whether the camera will do or not for note-taking purposes. Unfortunately I am now thinking it will not (the 12pt is too blurry, you certainly couldn't "threshold" it into clarity, and 10pt wouldn't be readable/guessable). I'll have to work out what else to do about a camera (possibly... a camera!).
Are there any bluetooth connected small cameras that could connect a bit like the idea of having a small thin credit card-sized bluetooth connected handset?
Ben
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Can you try again using the CamScanner App https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?...er&hl=en_US (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intsig.camscanner&hl=en_US) This app can fix issues with the text looking blurry and adjust lighting, it also will allow you to crop the picture so you only get the document you want. That is if the app will work with the camera. Thanks for posting the pictures still waiting to receive mine. How is the case for the camera add on?
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Are there any bluetooth connected small cameras that could connect a bit like the idea of having a small thin credit card-sized bluetooth connected handset?
I have never been taken with any camera phone, lots of Pixels but ultimately all compressed into a small sensor area with a small lens in front of it. Compared to a real camera this ultimately means less quality per £/$/EUR spent on it.
For work I carry a small compact Cannon Ixus 28-74mm zoom with image stabilisation and high ISO sensitivity (good in low light with no flash) It's about 8 years old but takes better images than my 2018 Samsung J5.
The Ixus takes SD cards so I use A Toshiba FlashAir CF (https://www.toshiba-memory.com/products/toshiba-wireless-sd-cards-flashair-w-04/) card. You can quickly move photos off the camera onto the Phone or indeed anything else with WiFi - the card works as a wireless server so makes own local network the Gemini/Phone connects to, there's an Android App but as it used WebDAV can work with most devices.
Once on the Gemini/Phone you email away etc as normal.
Most modern cameras from the traditional & "new"" camera manufacturers (Cannon, Olmpus, Nikon, Panasonic, Sony etc etc.) apart from the very cheap ones will have WiFi built in - although might need a propitiatory app to make it work (the Sony App is particularly irritating...)
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thanx for your input guys @shinkamui, @ali1234 and @Varti much appreciated
Man why did I count on the external camera add-on? :-/
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I have printed a test page I found on some webpage, containing text of different sizes, and made a photo of it with the external camera, I hope it will be useful to get an idea of the camera’s quality. I made the photo indoors, in a room with neon lightning.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Note that the external camera is necessary if you plan to use the Gemini as your primary phone and your home banking app requires to scan a QR (or similar) code in order to get access to your account. I have installed the app for my bank account on the Gemini and it works as expected.
Varti
Thanks Varti, that's perfect for judging whether the camera will do or not for note-taking purposes. Unfortunately I am now thinking it will not (the 12pt is too blurry, you certainly couldn't "threshold" it into clarity, and 10pt wouldn't be readable/guessable). I'll have to work out what else to do about a camera (possibly... a camera!).
Are there any bluetooth connected small cameras that could connect a bit like the idea of having a small thin credit card-sized bluetooth connected handset?
Ben
sony QX10 and QX100 are two possible wifi direct/nfc connected options. For the price though... I considered this as well during the crowdfunding campaign, but quickly realized the clips probably wont work with this form factor either.
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Can you try again using the CamScanner App https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?...er&hl=en_US (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intsig.camscanner&hl=en_US) This app can fix issues with the text looking blurry and adjust lighting, it also will allow you to crop the picture so you only get the document you want.
I decided to try, so I printed the same test page. It was shot in daylight near a window, with a 20W LED bulb celing light, not directly overhead. The first thing I noticed is that the landscape nature of the Gemini seems to confuse the CamScanner preview window
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As you can see, the preview is rotated 90 degrees (and then stretched). This made positioning the document quite fiddly. Other than that, the scanning, straightening and enhancement worked as advertised, giving me this:
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The remaining blur seems to come from either camera noise or attempts to remove it, and beyond improving contrast, there really isn't all that much the enhancement can do.
For reference, I tried again, this time just using the tools available in the Gemini stock camera app, and got this:
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Since there is no perspective correction available there, this document could only be cropped, not deskewed, which, in turn, should preserve what little sharpness there may be, as there is no resampling involved. I think the result looks a bit worse but is a bit easier to read. The process is a lot more manual though, having to set sliders for whites, highlights, shadows, black etc. Also, the resulting JPEG file is about three times as large.
Finally, again for reference, I tried using my mobile go-to photo editor, simply called Photo Editor, by Dev.Macgyver. It has perspecive correction, which I used, and many different tools for contrast, but to keep the test realistic, that is, simple enough that I might actually stand to do it whenever I need to "scan" something, I chose the Effect>Black&White High Contrast, and got this:
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Since this is a general purpose photo editor, I am free to chose how heavily to compress the JPEG file. Because the camera is so noisy to begin with, I could set the quality at 50% and get a file size about that of CamScanner. I'd still say, this is the worst of the three, probably because this is the most "manual" tool, and I limited myself to what I could do in less than a minute.
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Hi Daniel, Thanks for those processed photos: very very useful. I use Camscanner a bit and find it really useful so good to see that example.
All of those examples look like the 12pt is actually very legible. I suspect 10pt would be too. Any chance of a photo of a book or magazine page of text in camscanner too (sorry being a bit demanding!)?
I'm now thinking the camera add-on will be of use...
Cheers,
Ben